The Subtle Cue That Unlocks Enormous Deadlifts

In my previous videos for Breaking Muscle UK, we’ve covered how to effectively engage your lats and your elbows to give you a more powerful and stronger deadlift. But for some, that isn’t always the barrier to successful lifts. The issue is that the tension and priming of your body quickly unravels if you don’t use the correct cues as you start the deadlift.

Common cue terminology doesn’t help. It more often than not gets called a “pull”, so that’s what people do. They visualise pulling the weight from the floor and tend to snatch at the bar as a result, which spells bad news for technique.

The Subtle Cue That Unlocks Enormous Deadlifts

If you pull at the bar excessively, your lats lose their lock, your shoulders roll forwards, and your hips shoot up, turning a potentially explosive and safe lift into a slow grind. But if you change your mindset about the deadlift from a pull to a push, it can drastically change what your hips and torso do and ramp up the speed you generate.

The video below will show you what I mean.

By pushing your heels in and driving the floor away you will see your hips drive into the bar rather than shoot up, your torso stay solid and locked, and your spine keep in a safer and more comfortable position.

To summarise:

Move into your start position.

Use the cues we’ve covered with your knees and elbows to create the tension and pre-engage the muscles we’re targeting.

Visualise pushing into the floor. Instead of ripping the bar up, you’re going to imagine you’re leaving craters in the floor where your feet are.

Breathe into your belt (or stomach if you’re not wearing a belt) and quite literally push the world away.

You’ll recruit far more leg drive into the lift and then will likely be able to load more kilograms onto the barbell. All through changing how you think of the movement.